Trapped behind Elara's straining shield, with the ancient entity slowly but surely breaking through, they face a desperate choice. Jace, seeing no other way, makes the call. He takes a deep breath, his youthful face set with the weariness of a thousand lifetimes. He knows his power alone cannot defeat this foe, but it can buy them a chance. He begins to channel all his magical energy into a single, devastatingly powerful blast, an all-or-nothing attack meant to overload the entity's defenses and create a moment of chaos.
"It's been an honor, you two," he says to Kael and Elara, a final, somber goodbye in his voice.
Before he can unleash the attack, Aki breaks free from the shield's cover. He doesn't have magic, but he has an unbreakable bond with Lyra. He runs toward Jace, a boy facing a god's wrath. He wraps his arms around Jace's waist, adding his own small, pure strength to the coming blast. "We'll protect her," he says, a simple, brave truth in his voice.
Jace nods. "Kid, you have a lot of guts."
He unleashes the attack. A blinding explosion of pure magical energy erupts, a force that sends a shockwave through the entire town. It is a kamikaze attack, a suicide run designed to create a single moment of opportunity. The entity's chilling aura shudders and buckles, its physical form momentarily flickering in the face of such raw power.
But it is not defeated. It retaliates with a wave of raw, destructive energy. The blast hits Jace and Aki, sending them flying back. Jace's body crashes against a wall, his youthful form immediately reverting to that of a wounded, exhausted old man. Aki, who took the brunt of the hit, lands in a heap, his small body bruised and cut.
Lyra's eyes, which were darting between their vibrant green and a terrifying crimson, snap to focus. She sees Aki, the person who gave her a second chance at life, wounded and bleeding. The person she is deeply connected to, her one true protector, is hurt. A primal, raw fury unlike anything they have ever seen tears through her. The emotional barrier she has held for years shatters. The fight between her two souls ends.
Her full divine power, which has been contained for decades, explodes outward. It is a beautiful, terrifying sight. Her green eyes burn with an untainted, godly rage. Her golden hair rises into the air, and her body is surrounded by a halo of pure, white light. The malevolent power within her, the shadow of the ancient villain, no longer battles her for control—it is now bound to her will, a snarling, dark force harnessed by a greater, more righteous fury. She is a goddess, and a monster, all at once. She stands, every scar of the past and every ounce of pain forged into a powerful, devastating force.
The entity's physical form falters, and its voice, for the first time, is filled with something other than contempt. It is filled with fear.
In a flash of pure, unadulterated fury, Lyra's hair flies into the air, a wild storm of both black and gold. A halo, split between brilliant white and absolute black, forms above her head, symbolizing the light and dark power she now commands. She is no longer just a girl, nor is she just a goddess; she is a perfect union of divine power and the chaos that sought to corrupt her.
Without a word, she attacks. Her first move is a simple thrust, but it's so potent it doesn't just strike the entity in Silas's body; it tears a hole in the very fabric of space. Both she and the entity are consumed by the tear and vanish from sight.
For Kael, Jace, and Elara, it's a terrifying moment of silence. One second, two god-like beings are in front of them, and the next, they are gone. Then, as if reality itself is flickering, they see it. Above them, the sky rips open. For a split second, they glimpse a cosmic battlefield: Lyra, a blazing star of fury, locked in combat with the entity, a dark vortex of pure chaos. They are fighting through dimensions and worlds, tearing through reality with every blow.
The fighting is brutal. The entity, the core of the ancient mage's ambition, is not weak. It meets Lyra's divine rage with its own terrifying, relentless power. Their struggle sends ripples through the world, causing tremors and bursts of wild magic to explode around the cavern. One moment, they are fighting in a world of burning glass, then they disappear, only to reappear a second later, battling on a landscape of frozen stars.
The sound of their conflict is a terrible symphony of power—the crash of continents, the silent scream of stars, and the furious clash of light and darkness. The heroes on the ground are helpless. They can only watch as the fate of their world is decided in a battle beyond their comprehension. They are caught between two titans, one fighting to save a world she was reborn to protect, and the other to destroy it in the name of a long-dead master. The true end of the war of the gods has just begun.
The final battle rages across all of reality. The two beings, embodiments of the true Echo and the master's ultimate ambition, are locked in a struggle of cosmic proportions.